Flashback Friday - Winthrop Gold #16 - ten years ago

[grodney]

Ahhhh, remember when Winthrop Gold #16 was this easy little 2-shot hole, wide open, 560ish, ending with an elevated basket by the bamboo stand? Then the evil environmental area was created? Yeah, that sucked.

Before and after:

Construction of the "natural" area:

 

[BgWvDave]

2003 USDGC's? the famed sudden death battle of The Champ and the Other Champ. Both threw perfect rollers on this hole. Both had putts on this hole (before speed 14 drivers).

Back then the "Clowns Mouth" was still there as well. Pre-Baseball stadium.

 

[spahnandsain]

I'm lost, I know #16 at this years USDGC at no water. It was across the road from the bamboo hole. Little help please.

 

[DiscJunkie]

I'm lost, I know #16 at this years USDGC at no water. It was across the road from the bamboo hole. Little help please.

The Winthrop Gold Course was re-designed in 2004-2005, after Winthrop University constructed the Baseball Stadium and the wetlands/wilderness area. It caused a total re-design/re-route of Holes 15 and 16. I could tell you what they did, but I'm not sure I could ever explain it so that you could understand it, unless you had seen the old course and the new course.

I think you can still find copies of the 2003 USDGC. It was the last full-course video of the old layout, I think.
The 2006 video is the first full-course video of the new layout, or you can get any USDGC video after 2006.

The 2004 USDGC coverage is just a composite video of interviews and human-interest without full-course coverage.
The 2005 USDGC was lost to a corrupted hard drive.

Besides that, they generally tweak the course every year, so it changes constantly. Keeps it fresh.

 

[grodney]

Ahhhhh, the wayback machine. Here's the 2003 map. The baseball field existed, but the tennis courts did not. #11 was the "quarter mile". #14 was the infamous "clown's mouth". #17 played along the water, not at it.

https://web.archive.org/web/20031004233913/http://www.usdgc.com/wgold2.pdf

 

[JTacoma03]

Wow this is really cool. I noticed last year all the old teepads and tee signs in the ground still, and now I have context - thanks!

 

[grodney]

In addition to there (probably) being some old Gold course tee pads out there, there are also tee pads and tee markers out there from a very old version of the Lakefront course. Example: Between the Gold #2 basket and the Gold #3 tee, there is a relic lakefront course tee pad that hasn't been used for at least 13 years, probably longer.

 

[Stan McDaniel]

I remember rollers being popular off that tee. There were overhead power lines that crossed the fairway (underground now) that would send roller throws off course into the lake and leave nasty black scuff marks on the plastic.

 

[coupe]

Wow this is really cool. I noticed last year all the old teepads and tee signs in the ground still, and now I have context - thanks!

More context.

 

[billtvshow]

This is kind of awesome. So, back around 2009, a group of friends and I played Winthrop Gold for the first time. I don't know exactly how we ended up doing this, but we played Hole 11 the entire length of the front field just like the old map shows. Thus, when we finished what is now Hole 16, we had counted playing 15 holes. Knowing exactly where 17 was, we had no idea where 16 was or how it fit in. So we decided to arbitrarily add in a 16th hole by throwing from the curve in the road, up the road, to the basket over the rock wall (which I believe is still there as part of the Lakefront layout). I didn't know until just now reading this thread, but we pretty much played the old 16 in exactly the same spot, just a little further to the right. :hfive:

 

[JTacoma03]

More context.

Wow, which DVD is that from? Crump and Korver on commentary?

Geeking out on the history as well as the young faces playing the game, haha.

 

[JC17393]

Wow, which DVD is that from? Crump and Korver on commentary?

Geeking out on the history as well as the young faces playing the game, haha.

Not a DVD at all. It's from a TV show called DiscTV, a short-lived (2002) television program that ran on mostly obscure cable channels here and there. It was produced and hosted by a guy by the name of Brian Sullivan (he's the play-by-play voice in that linked video).

He traveled around to various tournaments to cover them and produce a weekly one-hour show with highlights. Usually, the coverage consisted of a Final 9 or a final round in the case of USDGC. He'd often grab a player who didn't make the final for live commentary (sorta what Terry Miller does now).

The old web site no longer exists, but you can find it at the Internet Archive (https://web.archive.org/web/20021121094946/http://disctv.disclife.com/).


Yeah, that's right, there was once a disc golf TV show before there was ever a Disc Golf Planet or any of the Youtube channels. It was well ahead of its time.

 

[JTacoma03]

Not a DVD at all. It's from a TV show called DiscTV, a short-lived (2002) television program that ran on mostly obscure cable channels here and there. It was produced and hosted by a guy by the name of Brian Sullivan (he's the play-by-play voice in that linked video).

He traveled around to various tournaments to cover them and produce a weekly one-hour show with highlights. Usually, the coverage consisted of a Final 9 or a final round in the case of USDGC. He'd often grab a player who didn't make the final for live commentary (sorta what Terry Miller does now).

The old web site no longer exists, but you can find it at the Internet Archive (https://web.archive.org/web/20021121094946/http://disctv.disclife.com/).


Yeah, that's right, there was once a disc golf TV show before there was ever a Disc Golf Planet or any of the Youtube channels. It was well ahead of its time.

Very interesting. I didn't know about it. From my perspective, things like this are very important as we grow Disc Golf Media, there have been many largely unsuccessful attempts in the past and I want to make sure that we can learn from mistakes and not repeat history.

Any idea how to get in touch with the people that produced this?

 

[kerplunk]

"Construction of the natural area" has got to be the funniest thing I have read today.

 

[grodney]

Not a DVD at all. It's from a TV show called DiscTV, a short-lived (2002) television program that ran on mostly obscure cable channels here and there. It was produced and hosted by a guy by the name of Brian Sullivan (he's the play-by-play voice in that linked video).

My mom and dad had the extra sports channels on Dish at the time, so she videotaped prettymuch every episode for me. The tapes are still up in my attic last I checked. Are all the eps online somewhere? If not, I could make mine available, assuming Sullivan wouldn't issue takedown due to copyright.

 

[spahnandsain]

Very interesting stuff guys, thanks.

 

[tbird888]

My mom and dad had the extra sports channels on Dish at the time, so she videotaped prettymuch every episode for me. The tapes are still up in my attic last I checked. Are all the eps online somewhere? If not, I could make mine available, assuming Sullivan wouldn't issue takedown due to copyright.

You might want to convert them to digital anyway before the tapes become too frail.

 

[grodney]

You might want to convert them to digital anyway before the tapes become too frail.

Ha, for sure. A couple years ago I digitized a 1998 before/after of when we built the Big Creek course in Des Moines. That tape prettymuch destroyed itself on the one trip through the VCR to grab the copy.